U.S. job market bounces back in a big way in October

After September’s job totals, heavily affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, were the worst for the U.S. in seven years, the question on the minds of many was whether the job market would bounce back in October.

This morning, we received the answer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy added 261,000 jobs last month, making it the best month for job creation so far this year. The unemployment has also improved, ticking down a notch to 4.1%.

The revisions from the previous two months also pointed in an encouraging direction, with an additional 90,000 jobs added to the totals from August and September.

Providing some additional context, the U.S. added 2.36 million over the first 10 months of 2014, 2.19 million over the first 10 months of 2015, 1.92 million over the first 10 months of 2016, and 1.68 million over the first 10 months of 2017.

Above you’ll find the chart I run every month, showing monthly changes in total jobs since the start of the Great Recession. The image makes a distinction: red columns point to monthly changes under the Bush and Trump administrations, while blue columns point to monthly job changes under the Obama administration.

Update: Here’s another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.